Dewar

Maybe I've just had bad luck, but in all that my friends and I have played, we've only found one thing of real intrest underground and it's been easier to jump to a more difficult planet to find surface minerals (and also cool surface buildings, by far the best feature of the game) rather than digging deep to get them. Home planets end up being kind of a waste once you start heading to beta and gamma sectors. You don't want to have to spend the extra fuel to jump back to alpha every single time, so you end up creating a home planet in each sector, which you rarely visit anyway. *shrug* I ended up living a nomadic existance with the few crafting things I needed sitting on my ship.

My goal of completing more games than I buy this year has kept me pretty limited on purchases. The only things I bought were Gone Home and Brutal Legend. However I did recieve a bunch of gifts from the sale (Rogue Legacy, Papers Please, Witcher 2, Penny Arcade 4, Contagion, Crusader Kings 2 DLC, Civ5 DLC) so I'll have plenty to play.

It's different.You do a lot less digging in Starbound. Instead you go to a planet, strip the surface minerals, then leave for the next. It also discourages building any really cool buildings, as you tend to fly off for more difficult environs every hour or so. At the moment, I'd say play Terraria and wait for Starbound to flesh out a bit more.

Blood Money is ten times better than Absolution.

I happened to be catching up on old Giant Bomb Inteview podcasts and just listened to this one with a woman who ran a sexism panel at PAX earlier this year. She seems to think that we're making a huge amount of progress, that PAX is good for fostering those conversations, and that we're way ahead of other types of media in analysing our faults. http://www.giantbomb.com/podcasts/checking-your-blind-spots/1600-607/ I guess all I'm asking is to not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

While I agree with some parts of Tycho's post and not others, I want to point out that there's a lot of stupidity surrounding Mike and his recent comments, but not a whole lot of complaints about the event itself. I still think PAX is basically a great and safe place, no matter what stupid comments might be made by PA folks. That's what sucks and makes me want to argue this so much. It feels like so many people are condeming one of the best and most inclusive events in gaming today because one guy has no tact.

The space features of the game more or less just give you different planet pallets and difficulties, with the added feature of not having to dig too much, as you can grab all the surface minerals and other special features, then zap on to the next planet rather than digging down. The only bummer is that it de-insentifies building an awesome base, as it won't be long until you're ready to move on to the next difficulty level. I had a problem running a server because it doesn't seem to respect UPnP and I don't have access to my router to manually forward ports. Server software definitely needs some work. Edit: I should mention, it only requires a few coal to be able to fly around to planets in the same system. Not only that but, if you're playing multiplayer, you can leave one ship back home and park the other ship at a nearby planet and have easy access to both.

I guess I avoided that Hell by already knowing how to play before I started, so a lot of this seems like steps backwards to me. But then, I don't play a bunch, so I guess I'm not really Valve's target.

There have been some reported instances of sexual harassment and other incidents at the show, but most of the beef that people have with PA revolves around those links that TheCineaste posted above, as well as a series of ignorant twitter comments by Mike basically boiling to "Men have a penis and women have a vagina" followed by stumbling around like an idiot trying to un-offend transgendered person and instead making it worse.

I think that PAX is moving toward having a lot of little showcases to try and protect various smaller groups from being overrun by the big developers. Hopefully this is another step in that direction rather than another step toward alienating folks. That's a really cool idea. It might be tough to pull off, but I'd like to see it.

It might, but I'd be afraid that Mike wouldn't use the level of tact needed to participate in such a panel.

I pretty much agree with this post entirely with one proviso. I think that there are some developers who want to stand out for the themes in their games (stuff like Depression Quest comes to mind) and this area could be a great boon to those games that have a feminist or LBGT theme. If used in this way, a seperate area showcasing that stuff could be good.

For a second there, I thought Mario and DK were going to kiss.

Providing a place for like people to gather, if they desire, does not necessarily impy that those people aren't welcome elsewhere. PAX has community run "women in video games" type panels, that does not mean that women's issues are not welcome anywhere else besides that panel. All I'm saying is that people are getting awfully angry about something that hasn't even been approved, let alone fully fleshed out. It could span the spectrum anywhere from an informational booth directing people to panel tracks that might discuss these issues, to an area where a bunch of games on one theme can be seen together, all the way down to a prison for all those wierder than us. Who knows?

So, what exactly is the difference between ranked and unranked match making? Is unranked really just a complete scramble random pick of opponents, or is there some sort of skill-based matching going on? I hate when games divide ranked and unranked. It should have just stayed as either public or private.

Well there's an Indie Megabooth, but people don't say that PAX is segregating indie devs away from the rest of the conference. There's a difference between walling off an area and saying that you have to stay behind this line and providing a space that concentrates a certain ideal to give it more visibility. We won't know what side of that line it falls on until it's implemented.

I think that PAX is one of the safest gatherings of 40,000 people that I have ever been present at. I think that they are doing their best to make it all inclusive, but no gathering of that size is ever going to be perfect. I think that Mike has said some really stupid things on stage, but that doesn't take away the value of the conference as a whole. Finally, I don't think that a diversity area is their attempt to segregate or not make it a top priority, I think it is their attempt to showcase that sort of information somewhere where it might get more press than a forgotten corner of the indie megabooth. Whether their idea (which isn't even a final draft) is a good one or not, I don't know, but I don't see the malice here.

My wife and I have never experienced anything but positive (if somewhat akward) interactions at PAX, going back to before we were married. We often split up and go our seperate ways and as far as I know (and we've talked about it) she's never felt uncomfortable. The reports of stuff that has gone on at PAX, while certainly a bad thing, aren't any worse than what I have seen the few times I have gone to a night club. I don't know how PAX has become the scape goat for creepy people. Creepy people are everywhere. Edit: I'm a bit torn on this diversity room thing. There have been diversity panels at PAX every year since PAX has been large enough to have community driven panels, and I don't necessarily see the purpose behind having an area dedicated to it. At the same time, it would be really cool for those that are active in that community to see all of the games relating to that subject in one place. Yet it might just provide a target for stupid people to do stupid things.

Video card or RAM not seated correctly sounds right if moving it around fixed the problem. A stuck fan causing overheating also comes to mind, but it could be any number of things really,

So I'm on the phone with my bank and then I suddenly couldn't recall my account number or social security number. I'm sure it's just because I'm really tired, but I always worried that maybe there's something wrong up there, like when people who have strokes get aphasia.

The first time I ever heard it was on Rush Limbaugh back 15 years ago when my Mom used to listen to it.

Well worth it if you ask me.

3, but with all my stream watching I was maintaining 65% win rate mostly playing random draft and Single Draft

New patch. I'm now locked out of all of the match making queues except limited heroes and all pick. Not much of an incentive to play more games.

Incredibly excited actually. SRPG is one of my favorite genres.